Microsoft Kinect adapted to detect disorder symptoms in children

The Kinect motion controller is no stranger to medical procedures as we reported in January it is slowly being deployed in the operating theater to aid surgeons. But now researchers at the University of Minnesota are aiming to utilize Microsoft’s Kinect sensors once more as a way to measure disorder symptoms in children.

The team, comprised of a number of researches from Minnesota’s Medical, Science and Engineering and Education/Human Development colleges, were given a $3 million National Science Foundation grant to use the Kinect in their research. They were looking at ways to observe and analyze abnormal behavior and movements in children. These patterns could then indicate possible behavioral problems such as OCD, autism and attention-deficit disorders.

Traditionally, these observations were carried out by humans via video recordings of the patients. But one of the lead researchers of the project believes the Kinect-based system could take the subjectivity out of the process. This in turn could result in significant savings in the thousands of dollars over other traditional diagnosis methods and procedures. In some cases the Kinect system could end up reducing costs by up to $100,000 and also prevent the need to attach intrusive sensors to the child.

Open source PC drivers and Microsoft’s official SDK for Kinect that were released earlier this month (spring for non-commercial use) are helping the researchers adapt the technology to their needs. But it will be another six months before their system is ready for testing.

The Kinect may not be pumping out a lot of must-have titles at the moment, but its use as a non-gaming platform seems to be the best way to make use from the $150 device.

Already we have seen some pretty adventurous adaptations, such as the Star Wars hologram and the Minority Report-style gesture system. What will come next is anyone’s guess, but with over 8 million units sold it’s only a matter of time before some other exciting project gets created.